OBSERVATIONS ON VEGETABLES. 325 



SEED LYING DORMANT. The naked part of the Hanger is 

 HOW covered with thistles of various kinds. The seeds of these 

 thistles may have lain probably under the thick shade of the 

 beeches for many years, but could not vegetate till the sun 

 and air were admitted. When old beech trees are cleared 

 away, the naked ground in a year or two becomes covered 

 with strawberry plants, the seeds of which must have lain in 

 the ground for an age at least. One of the slidders, or trenches, 

 down the middle of the Hanger, close covered over with lofty 

 beeches near a century old, is still called strawberry-slidder, 

 though no strawberries have grown there in the memory of 

 man. That sort of fruit did once, no doubt, abound there, 

 and will again, when the obstruction is removed. * 



* Sir Thomas Dick Lauder, Bart, well known for liis zeal for science, 

 made some very curious and interesting experiments, in 1817, on the 

 germination of seeds, which we shall give in his own words : "A friend 

 of mine possesses an estate in this county, a great part of which lying 

 along the Moray Firth, was, at some period not very well ascertained, 

 but certainly not less than sixty years ago, covered with sand, which had 

 been blown from the westward, and overwhelmed the cultivated fields, 

 so that the agriculturist was forced to abandon them altogether. My 

 friend, soon after his purchase of the estate, began the arduous, but judi- 

 cious operation of trenching down the sand, and bringing to the surface 

 the original black mould. These operations of improvement were so 

 productive, as to induce the very intelligent and enterprising proprietor 

 to undertake, lately, a still more laborious task, viz. to trench down the 

 superincumbent sand, on a part of the property where it was no less than 

 eight feet deep. 



" Conceiving this to be a favourable opportunity for trying some experi- 

 ments relative to the length of time which seeds preserve their power of 

 vegetation, even when immersed in the soil, I procured from my friend a 

 quantity of tlie mould, taken fresh from under the sand, and carefully 

 avoiding any mixture of the latter. This was instantly put into a jar, 

 which was stopped up close, by means of a piece of bladder tied tightly 

 over its mouth. Having prepared a couple of flower-pot flats, by drilling 

 small holes in the bottom of them, so as to admit of the ascent of water, 

 I filled the flats with some of the mould, and placing them in a very wide 

 and shallow tub, made on purpose, I covered each of them with a large 

 glass receiver. Each receiver, however, was provided with a brass rim, 

 having little brass knobs on it, so as to raise its edge from the bottom of 

 the tub, and leave a small opening for the admission of air. The whole 

 apparatus was placed in my library, of which the door and windows were 

 kept constantly shut. 



'* This was done on the 17th of February last. It is now the 6th of 

 May; and, on examining the flats, I find about forty-six plants in them, 

 apparently of four different kinds; but, as they are yet very young, I 

 cannot determine their species with any degree of accuracy." 



Sir Thomas has just informed us, that the seeds which germinated were 

 all highly oleagaceous, and the plants produced were the mouse-ear, 



